Cran-Apple Oats

Greetings from San Antonio! As I said on my weight loss blog I’m here to host a quick event for HumanaVitality, but while I was packing I made myself a warm, delicious breakfast out of that bag of cranberries I got from the CSA.

I decided on steel cut oats as a base because I had the time to cook them, but I’m sure you can make something similar with old fashioned or even quick. The longer cooking time really gave the apple and cranberries a chance to break down together flavoring the oatmeal in a fun and very pink way!

You’d think the oatmeal, based on color, would be sweet, but the tartness of the cranberries dominated so I drizzled honey on top of the final dish.

I’d rather add the honey at the end than during the cooking process as I tend to use less that way. If I incorporated the honey into the oatmeal I probably would need 3-4 times the amount to bring the sweetness up enough to make it palatable, but when it’s on top the honey is the first thing you taste, giving you just the right amount of relief from the tart cranberry flavor.

Oh, and the almonds added that much needed crunch!

I really liked it. It was a warm bowl of fall yumminess.

Here’s what I did …

1/2 cup (55g) fresh cranberries

1 small apple (100g Chopped)

1/4 cup steel-cut oats

1 cup water

1/2 tbsp honey (10g)

7g slivered almonds

In a small pot, add the cranberries, apple, oats and water.

If you like a much thicker oatmeal, you may want to reduce the water just slightly as the apple and cranberries add moisture as well.

Bring everything to a boil while stirring and mashing the cranberries with a fork until they pop.

Continue to boil for about a minute and then cover and reduce to a simmer.

Now just walk away. Clean the kitchen, check some email, or in my case pack for a short excursion to San Antonio!

The oats will take about 30 minutes to cook, I always check mine at the 20-minute mark, give them a stir and then cook the additional 10 minutes.

Pour the oats into a bowl, drizzle with honey and top with slivered almonds.

It’s quite a vibrant dish but fun and seasonal. Oh! and you can totally make this with frozen cranberries.

However, to prevent the massive amounts of spam I was receiving I have turned off comments on any post older than 5 days old. If you'd like to leave me a note regarding this post or anything really try me on twitter (@RoniNoone,) my Facebook page, or even IG (@RoniNoone) I'm so sorry for the inconvenience. I never thought I'd have to do this but it's gotten way out of hand and comment management has become simply too time consuming to manage.

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I almost bought a bag of cranberries the other day but didn't know what to with them (I'm not the only one who buys things just cuz, right?) Thanks for the brilliant idea! I bet the apple mellows the tartness from the cranberries. Love the color, too!

I’m Roni, a 30-ish working mom with a passion for coming up with lite recipe ideas. In ‘05, I started a weight loss blog to help me lose 70 lbs! Now my focus is to archive and share my food ideas.
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